9.4%
Unemployment rate ticks down to 9.4%. AP: "Employers throttled back on layoffs in July, cutting just 247,000 jobs, the fewest in a year, and the unemployment rate dipped to 9.4 percent. It was a better than expected showing that offered a strong signal that the recession is finally ending."
NYT reports government spending stimulating more than tax cuts: "Economists say that the president’s $787 billion stimulus package has helped blunt the downturn in limited but discernible ways ... the punch from increased government spending has helped the economy begin to bottom out faster than it would have otherwise. The tax cuts included in the plan, economists said, have had less of an impact because people tended to save the money or use it to pay down debt rather than spend it ... Private analysts say they think it added at least 1 percentage point to economic growth in the second quarter..."
Violence Increasing At Town Halls
Outbreaks of violence in Tampa. and St. Louis town halls. HuffPost notes in Tampa: "Many of the hundreds of protesters said that they had been inspired by a conservative activist group promoted by Fox News host Glenn Beck and some received emails from the county Republican party ... some protesters carried racist caricatures of President Obama..."
More from HuffPost on dishonesty from protesters: "Congressman Steve Kagen, (D-Wisc.) found himself interrupted during a town hall meeting on health care on Thursday evening which, considering the boisterous protests going on at these events all week, wasn't much of a surprise. But towards the end of the Wisconsin Democrat's health care forum something a bit peculiar happened. A woman who initially identified herself as 'just a mom from a few blocks away' who was 'not affiliated with a political party' was outed by a reporter as a GOP operative who worked for Kagen's election opponent John Gard as well as the Republican Party of Wisconsin and the Republican National Committee ... [the] deliberate misleading of the local NBC reporter feeds into the suspicion that she - like other protesters at these events - are there because of political reasons not policy disagreements."
Steve Pearlstein lets loose on right-wing lies: "The recent attacks by Republican leaders and their ideological fellow-travelers on the effort to reform the health-care system have been so misleading, so disingenuous, that they could only spring from a cynical effort to gain partisan political advantage. By poisoning the political well, they've given up any pretense of being the loyal opposition. They've become political terrorists, willing to say or do anything to prevent the country from reaching a consensus on one of its most serious domestic problems."
CNN's Rick Sanchez grills scandal-marred chief of Conservatives for Patient Rights' Rick Scott: "Some people are going to look at your record and some of the things that you and I just talked about and say, this is the guy who is leading this charge. Is he the one that we should be listening to? Not exactly a perfect past when it comes to what's right for taxpayers and patients."
WH coordinates with Senate Dems to check right-wing protests. Politico: "Senior White House adviser David Axelrod and deputy chief of staff Jim Messina told senators to focus on the insured and how they would benefit from “consumer protections" in the overhaul, such as ending the practice of denying insurance based on preexisting conditions and ensuring the continuity of coverage between jobs. They showed video clips of the confrontational town halls that have dominated the media coverage, and told senators to do more prep work than usual for their public meetings by making sure their own supporters turn out ... 'If you get hit, we will punch back twice as hard,' Messina said, according to an official who attended the meeting ... Senators were urged to zero in on the insured, who need to be convinced that there is something in the bill for them ... Axelrod and Messina also presented polling that showed the insurance reforms were popular with women and rural residents."
While WH scolds ads from liberal groups. Politico: "White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel warned liberal groups this week to stop running ads against Democratic members of Congress. Some on the left believe administration officials are making such statements only as a favor to Democratic legislators whose votes they’ll ultimately need. But the White House indicates to POLITICO that it truly believe the ads aimed at Democrat are counter-productive and largely ineffectual ... It’s a delicate issue for Obama, who wants his own supporters to aggressively lobby their representatives during the August recess but also doesn’t want to create a backlash among centrist Democrats who relish their independence and the power that comes with being a swing vote ... White House officials indicated that [DNC ads] were being run to give their allies air cover to support the legislation."
Nature of WH-PhRMA Deal Gets Murkier
Congressional leaders not accepting WH-PhRMA deal to block negotiations for lower drug prices, if there is actually a deal. NYT: "A spokesman for Speaker Nancy Pelosi said she stood by her position that the House was not bound by any such agreement. Ms. Pelosi supports House efforts 'to squeeze more money out of the system, including from the pharmaceutical industry,' ... Representative Henry A. Waxman ... vowed to fight the White House ... Senator Sherrod Brown, an Ohio Democrat who has championed such drug price negotiations, said he had pressed the issue in a private meeting with Jim Messina, a White House deputy chief of staff involved in the talks, and came away reassured that there was no such agreement barring a push for the government negotiation of drug prices.
HuffPost adds: "'It contradicts what Billy Tauzin said [the White House] told the drug makers, but Billy Tauzin has not always been all that straight with the truth,' said Brown, referring to PhRMA's president ... 'It was one of those things that was a well-crafted answer,' Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) told the Huffington Post. 'I think they said there was no deal. It was about three paragraphs, at the end of which, [he said] there was no deal. But it took three paragraphs. Maybe there's an answer somewhere in those three paragraphs.'"
Baucus Caucus Gets Pushback From States
Baucus, Blue Dogs looks to squeeze states and working families to save money, govs chafe. NYT: "[TN Gov. Phil] Bredesen said the costs for new Medicaid recipients could show up immediately, while the savings might not materialize for five years or more ... Democratic senators and liberal advocacy groups told Mr. Baucus they had serious questions about whether insurance would be affordable to people of modest means under the proposal being drafted by the six senators."
President reminds simple majority vote still an option, during meeting with Baucus caucus. W. Post: "Snowe and her two Republican and three Democratic colleagues on the Finance Committee held a final bargaining session Thursday, although the group plans to continue negotiations this month. Finance Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) set a Sept. 15 deadline for his panel to produce a bill ... Obama urged the six senators to keep up their bipartisan discussions, despite little evidence that the detailed policy provisions they are producing are gaining traction with other Republicans ... The main hurdle is the continued lack of Republican interest in cutting a deal that would allow legislation to advance. Two conservatives, Sens. Charles E. Grassley (Iowa) and Mike Enzi (Wyo.), have remained at the negotiating table, although they repeatedly said that they will not endorse legislation that does not attract a broader GOP following. Participants said Obama noted other prospective paths to Senate approval of a health-care bill, including a budget process known as reconciliation, which would limit the scope of the legislation but protect it from a GOP filibuster."
Experts back public plan option. W. Post: "Many experts, such as Linda Blumberg and John Holahan at the Urban Institute, say a public plan is essential to fiscal responsibility in a country where health-care spending has soared to $2.4 trillion per year. A public option such as that proposed by House Democrats, with prices initially set at 5 percent above Medicare rates but well below private insurer rates, would inject competition into markets that are now oligopolies: An American Medical Association study found that a single insurer controls more than half the market in 16 states and a third of it in 38 states ... Jacob Hacker ... calls co-ops a 'fig leaf to cover up a lack of commitment to a public plan' and notes that Oppenheimer analysts predicted that co-ops are 'destined to fail from the moment of creation.'"
BusinessWeek chronicles the close relationship private insurer UnitedHealth has with Blue Dog Dems: "UnitedHealth has distinguished itself by more deftly and aggressively feeding sophisticated pricing and actuarial data to information-starved congressional staff members. With its rivals, the carrier has also achieved a secondary aim of constraining the new benefits that will become available to tens of millions of people who are currently uninsured. That will make the new customers more lucrative to the industry. [Rep. Jim] Matheson, whose Blue Dogs command 52 votes in the House, can't offer enough praise for UnitedHealth ... UnitedHealth has periodically served as a valuable extension of [Sen. Mark] Warner's office, providing research and analysis to support his initiatives ... on June 4, Stevens accompanied UnitedHealth's chief executive, Stephen J. Hemsley, to a meeting with Senator Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), an influential moderate member of the Senate Finance Committee. Conrad has since led an effort to create nonprofit medical cooperatives that would operate much like utility co-ops as a substitute for a federally run plan. With less heft than a proposed national plan, the state medical cooperatives would pose a far weaker competitive threat to private insurers."
Push For American Green Jobs in Climate Bill
10 senators are insisting on level playing field for globe trade in any climate bill. NYT: "Ten moderate Senate Democrats from states dependent on coal and manufacturing sent a letter to President Obama on Thursday saying they would not support any climate change bill that did not protect American industries from competition from countries that did not impose similar restraints on climate-altering gases ... The 10 senators were Evan Bayh of Indiana; Sherrod Brown of Ohio; Robert C. Byrd and John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia; Bob Casey and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania; Russ Feingold of Wisconsin; Al Franken of Minnesota; and Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow of Michigan. They called for transition aid for energy-intensive manufacturers in the form of rebates on their energy costs; negotiation of a strong international agreement on emissions; programs to monitor emissions in other countries; and significant financing for clean energy technology. The authors also proposed 'border adjustments,' tariffs, on goods from countries that do not agree to an international program for carbon dioxide reductions. The House bill gives the president the power to impose such penalties on goods from countries that do not adhere to an international climate change regime."
Politico looks at manufacturing support for climate bill that invests in green jobs: "A proposed revolving loan fund of $30 million for clean energy technology is gaining support from 150 clean energy manufacturers, marking a growing fault line in the struggling industry. The companies represent a hodgepodge of small- and medium-sized businesses, largely specializing in clean energy sectors like solar and wind technology. They also stand to benefit the most from the Investments for Manufacturing Progress and Clean Technology Act sponsored by Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) ... large segments of the manufacturing sector represented by the [right-wing] National Association of Manufacturers are lobbying against the climate change legislation [but] Scott Paul, the executive director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, says its stakeholders, including the massive United Steelworkers union, are willing to make concessions to get the measure passed."
Major Fair Trade Test Gets Hearing Today
W. Post reviews Chinese tire tariff debate: "The Obama administration is considering imposing tariffs on some Chinese-made tires that could effectively ban them from the United States, a proposal that is shaping up to be the first major test trial of the White House's trade policy toward China. The case stems from a petition filed by the United Steelworkers, who blame surging Chinese tire imports for the loss of more than 5,000 U.S. jobs since 2004. In a hearing scheduled for Friday, the Office of the U.S. Trade Representative will consider whether to endorse a recommendation by the International Trade Commission to impose tariffs of as much as 55 percent on Chinese-made tires for passenger vehicles and light trucks that are sold by independent tire dealers."
EARLIER ON OURFUTURE.ORG: "Obama's Chance To Stand Up To China"
